Nature 344, 305 - 309 (22 March 1990); doi:10.1038/344305a0

Collision-induced two-ion chaos

R. G. Brewer^*, J. Hoffnagle^*, R. G. DeVoe^*, L. Reyna^† & W. Henshaw^†

^* IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, California 95120-6099, USA
^† IBM Research Division, T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA

Two ions confined to a radio-frequency trap and cooled by radiation pressure exhibit deterministic chaos. Theoretical analysis of the two-ion dynamics reveals that the route to chaos is due solely to ion-ion collisions. During a collision, the nonlinear Coulomb interaction introduces a transient instability, which gives way to stable single-particle-like motion as the ions move apart. The chaotic dynamics are characterized by a strange attractor that resembles a spiral galaxy.

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